How are the quality of the Seiko leather bands? Is it a good idea to opt for the metal?

Depends on the price point of the watch. The band (or bracelet) is the first place Seiko cuts cost to bring the price down to a lower price point target. About $200 and higher "street price" has pretty good leather or stainless steel. Take a good look at various price point Seikos. You'll find the steel bands on the more expensive ones are solid machined links and the bottom price point Seikos have "wrapped" or "folded" links made of stainless steel sheet metal. There will also be a similar shift in crystal materials starting with acrylic, then Hardex, and finally sapphire. The solid machined links feel much better on the wrist. Most wouldn't think so looking at them, but wear one with solid machined links for a few days and you'll never want folded or wrapped links on your wrist again.

Regarding bands and crystal materials (acrylic, hardlex, or sapphire), you get what you pay for.

From what I understand kinetic uses your body movement to power the watch with electrical energy much like powering a battery. The automatic movement is using your body's motion to power a spring which transfers the energy to make the movement work. The kinetic has a much greater down time after being powered, months or years whereas an automatic movement only has around 48 hours at max power. Mechanicals, at least the older ones I have were hand wound to power the watch and not based on body movement.

Could someone please enlighten me as to the difference between a Seiko automatic and a Seiko kinetic (examples below)? Please forgive my ignorance.

An "automatic" is a completely mechanical movement . . . no wires . . . no electricity (e.g. battery). It's powered by a mainspring that is wound either manually through the crown, or "automatically" using gravity, normal wrist motion, and a weighted rotor on the back of the watch movement to wind the mainspring. The common jargon is "automatic" or "hand-wind" . . . I've really not seen "manual" used before. In nearly all modern automatics, it doesn't matter which way the rotor turns, it winds the mainspring, and there's a form of clutch inside the mainspring barrel to keep the mainspring from being over-wound (and ultimately broken). The mainspring is very long and thin, and is coiled up inside a "barrel."

This is a picture of a new movement I just bought for having a custom watch assembled. It has Tissot marked on the auto-wind rotor, and it was made by ETA for Tissot (both are part of The Swatch Group which owns nineteen Swiss watch brands . . . including Blancpain, Omega, Rado, Breguet, Certina and GlashÃ¼tte). It was ordered as a replacement movement for a Tissot mechanical, apparently wasn't needed, the price was right, so I grabbed it. As this shows the back of the movement you can see the autowind rotor. I believe the two gears that you can see the edges of are part of the auto-wind train. At the bottom, the wheel with one spoke showing is the "balance" wheel and rotates back and forth on a coiled "hairspring." It's the equivalent of a pendulum in a clock, except in this case it rotates back and forth four times per second. The long threaded shaft with plastic knob is how these are shipped . . . it's the stem, which is cut to length for the specific watch, and the watch crown is threaded onto it.

Seiko's Kinetic is an electronic quartz movement. It is powered by "electricity" and is Seiko's answer to the Citizen Eco-Drive technology that recharges its internal cell with ambient light. To get around Citizen's patents, Seiko devised a mechanical charging system that uses a rotor similar to that used in a mechanical watch. Instead of a gear train that winds a mainspring though, it uses a sub-miniature coil and magnet to generate electricity to either a charge a capacitor or a tiny rechargeable battery (Seiko uses both methods . . . which depends on the specific movement). The rest of the watch movement is electronic quartz. This is a picture of a Kinetic inside a Lorus (a brand owned by Seiko). You can see the rotor . . . and above that in this photo is the traditional coil found inside a quartz watch. The gear and pinion labeled in the photo are turned by the rotor . . . the pinion is on the end of the generator.

A little assistance from you Seiko experts. Which is the better watch of the below samples:

The one on the left is made in Japan only, I think the one on the right is an American model, not sure where it is made. From this I assume the quality of the one of the left is better. But then the one on the right is $400 or so cheaper correct? I don't like the finish though.